


Martyr

by C_Sharpe



Category: Legacy of Kain
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-29
Updated: 2018-03-29
Packaged: 2019-04-14 17:09:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14140635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/C_Sharpe/pseuds/C_Sharpe
Summary: On the day of his greatest triumph, Raziel comes face to face with the end of his life and the beginning of his destiny.





	Martyr

**Author's Note:**

> Not breaking any new ground here, but LoK is my favorite franchise of all time, and I needed to write something. I always felt that Raziel somehow felt something about meeting himself, and that he may have realized what that might mean at the very end.

Here it was. This… Creature. It had led them to Janos Audron, but he never mistook it for an ally, or anything other than a useful tool. An animal unwittingly leading them to larger prey. It’s association with the winged fiend clearly marked it as vampiric, but what a ragged specimen it was. Still, best not to underestimate it. Appearance meant little when dealing with vampires and demons. The others had likely made the mistake of underestimating this beast, and had paid with their lives.

“So, __vampire__  – here we are. You’ve destroyed my brethren – and now you’ve come for me?” Raziel studied the sword gripped in it’s claw warily. Moebius’s treasure. Perhaps more dangerous than the creature wielding it.“You’ll find I am not such easy prey.” 

“I don’t want to kill you, but I will if I must.” That voice. It was… familiar. An uncomfortable sensation spread from Raziel’s spine. “Return the heart to me, and we can end this now.”

Raziel almost laughed aloud at this. The irony of this blasphemous wretch espousing such noble ambitions. It would have been truly amusing if it wasn’t so disgusting.

“So you’ve come to avenge that filthy parasite, and reclaim his foul heart?” If it was so sentimental, Raziel would be happy to use that against it. “You’re a __righteous__  fiend, aren’t you?” 

“Apparently I _am_.” The creature had the gall to look superior. Something ineffable, something familiar about this creature. Something that disquieted Raziel in a way he dared not show. Raziel gathered himself against this sense of uneasiness, letting it transform into rage, settling into well worn paths of a familiar hatred.

“No, vampire.  This __is__  where it ends, but you won’t be leaving this room. Now let’s finish this – I’ll make it mercifully quick.” The sooner he sent the foul thing back to hell, the better. 

“As you did for Janos?” The blue demon asked, clearly upset. The abomination did have a heart after all. Many of their kind had died defending the great Janos Audron, origin of their unholy plague. Raziel seized on the opportunity to regain the psychological advantage.  

“No, that beast had eluded us for _far_ too long. It would have been a _shame_ to end him too quickly.” It narrowed it’s hideous eyes. Good. “It’s ironic, really – the ‘great Janos Audron’ turned out to be no challenge at all... _thanks to ** **you****_.” That got a reaction. Anger made one stupid. Sloppy. “Did you hear his cowardly screams when I tore that black heart out of his carcass?”

The wiry thing tore at him like a starving dog. It swung wildly, the sword, much too large for the little cobalt fiend, cut wide sloppy arcs in the air, catching on the marble floor more often than not. Raziel slashed at its vulnerable back and chest with both blades. He made note that the flaps dangling from its shoulders appeared to be wings, or at least had been at some point. The blue coloration, the wings, and its skeletal appearance. Was it once something like Audron had been? Perhaps in the ancient past, there had been more like Audron, demons wearing angelic masks, consuming life and damning souls. Was this somehow one of them, resurrected?

The little beast showed no signs of fatigue or even injury. Raziel stuck it again and again, but it didn’t make the slightest move to dodge his blows or defend itself. He felt the blade bite, catching on flesh and scraping bone, but no sign remained to show the passage the weapon made through the body. A vampire was a creature of undeath. Had this vampire been called back from beyond even that? He mourned the tortured human soul it had once been, trapped in this purgatory. How to kill something so far removed from the natural cycle of life and death?

Raziel was tiring, even if the monster would not. He dodged backward, but his left foot slid slightly, ruining his balance. It was all the opening the thing needed. A slash landed across his belly, the wicked serpentine blade parting his armor as if it were thin cloth. The vampire wasted no time, ramming the blade into Raziel’s torso to the hilt.

“I _renounce ** **you****_.”It hissed.

Raziel’s eyes widened in pain and horror. He was looking into the hollow eyes of his murderer. He was looking into __his own__ eyes. He didn’t understand how it was possible, but knew it as surely as he knew his own reflection.

Moebius’s words from hours earlier came back to him. He had just presented the Blade and Heart to Lords Moebius and Malek. Moebius smiled that unsettling smile of his as he observed the sword in his hands.

“You have done well Inquisitor Raziel. You truly are a good and dutiful servant of our lord God. On this day, you take a step towards fulfilling the great destiny that God, in his infinite wisdom and mercy, has laid before you.” Raziel, kneeling before his superiors, had startled at his words. What greater destiny could await him? He had slain the first vampire, taken it’s still beating heart and its most precious treasure to instruments of God’s will on Earth. He had left that room with doubt settling in his heart in the place where pride had been moments before.

In the agony of the present, the beast was draining him of his blood. The world faded at the edges and he tried vainly to question this thing before him, to understand what it all meant, how this was possible, but he could only manage to choke on his own blood. He felt destiny coiling around him like serpents, dragging him down into the abyss. He thought he heard Moebius laughing, somewhere far away.

He fell, not feeling the sword withdraw or the ground beneath him, all senses lost but that of betrayal. “ _Please God, not like this, anything _…”__ He managed to plead in one last silent prayer before his soul fled its physical form.

God heard Raziel’s prayer, and God was pleased.

 


End file.
